Saturday, December 3, 2011

An ornament tutorial for you!

I love making ornaments!!! It's the one time of year when I can really play with glitter and tinsel and not worry about what I'm going to do with the darn thing after I finish making it!! LOL!

I went to visit my friend Sandy's blog Quill Cottage, after she told me she was going to be doing a new ornament tutorial. Well I ran right over because she has been the biggest inspiration for me when it comes to ornament ideas.

After looking through it, I sat down in the studio and starting playing around with what I learned. At that point my creative muse bumped me on the shoulder and took me in a whole new direction!!

This is the first one I made as I was experimenting. As you can see from later versions, I keep refining the design with each one I make.

This is the second one I made and the one I will be showcasing as I create it in a tutorial for you!!!

Start by cutting out 14 four inch squares from scrapbook paper, music sheets or book pages

(If you are using the thicker double-sided scrapbook paper you will only need 7 four inch squares.)

Glue the papers wrong sides together (unless you are using thick double sided paper)

You should now have 7 double sided squares.

Sew a straight line down all the squares diagonally using the largest size stitch on your machine.

If you don't have a machine you can run a thin bead of hot glue diagonally down the center of each square until all 7 layers are fused together in the middle.

Cut the shape of a heart on one side of the diamond...

then fold the top layer over and use it as a template to make the other side match perfectly.

Use your ink pad to "tarnish" the silver pipe cleaners if you want to dull down the finish just a bit and give it a more vintage feel.

Trust me, they still stay pretty sparkly and look beautiful on the tree.

You can also ink the edges of each heart section now if you would like to.

Now run a bead of hot glue down the crease of your heart and place the first pipe cleaner as close to the center as you can.

Continue doing this all around the entire heart shape. As you get nearer to the end getting the pipe cleaners as close to center as possible gets a little harder, so use a popsicle stick to help push the pipe cleaner further into the center.

Now you have a nice handle to hold while

you finish the edges and give it a little more sparkle with glitter glue on the very edge of each section.

(I love Stickles silver and platinum)

Stick the pipe cleaners in a glass or something while the glitter glue dries. (It only takes about a half or or so)

At this point you are probably going to want to cut about 2 " off the top of each pipe cleaner. You'll be able to change the look you get by adjusting this number but for your first one, lets go with 2 inches.

Gently fold the pipe cleaners around the heart and secure at the bottom with a drop of glue from the hot glue gun. Try to keep the pipe cleaners in order as you go around. It's not mandatory but it's nice.

This is what it will look like when they are all attached at the bottom.

Cut a piece of pipe cleaner about 5 inches long for the handle and apply to the center of the ornament.

(On the 3rd one I made, I added a very small Christmas ball to the top before I glued in the handle.

Now thread your bauble through a very short piece of pipe cleaner and using hot glue, secure it to the bottom of the ornament.

These are the icicles I use, but when they come out of the package they are very straight and new looking.

Pull some out of the package and scrunch and roll it around between your palms until it's all scrunched and messy.

Now pull it all apart and see how much better it looks!

Add some to the top and bottom and you are done!!!

This was the third one I did. For this one I cut out hearts of sheet music and glued them front and back to each of the seven squares before I sewed them together. Then, after the heart shape was all cut out I very lightly painted Modge Podge to the blue cardstock and gave it a nice coating of Martha Stewart's fine crystal glitter.

I hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! I know I'm a day late but I'm linking up with Debra at Common Ground for her Vintage Inspiration Friday and also Deck The Halls Sunday at Artful Affirmations. I hope you will all go and visit them and all the other great inspiring links!

Hey pretty girl! You have been busy in Santa's workshop, I love all of your ornaments! I finished those I started and have many more to do but I just got all the glitter cleaned up!! I can't wait to see these o your tree! Hope you're having a great day,big hugs,xoxo-cindy

Oh my goodness Karen I am so copying off you!!!! I need some more ornaments for my new shabby old tree I pickup last week at the flea market. I love how you took the tutorial and made it your own, awesome! Thank you for the sweet link back too. Have a wonderful weekend!

Holy Shamokes! How gorgeous are these ornaments??!!!! I can not WAIT to try my hand at making these pretties! I don't sew, not even at bit, so I'm thinking I can punch hearts out, fold them in half and go from there. Thank you so much for sharing these! The crinkled icicles were amazing, too.Thanks again!

HOW do you do it?!?! All this creativity, a tutorial, and posting?!?! I'm going to have to yank a knot in "her" tail because "she" certainly isn't performing to "her" full potential. Or maybe "she" is -- now that's a scary thought...I got adopted by a creative factory reject! MOL These are beautiful. So beautiful that I 'might' even leave them alone once they were on the tree. Anything other than on the tree however, is fair game ;)

Hi Karen, Thank you for sharing the tutorial for these beautiful ornaments. I love all of your creations of your last post as well. Your tree must look jsut fabulous.Have a wonderful Advent season!Hugs,Julia

Hi, I love your beautiful ornament, I too recently did some ornaments with pipe cleaners and paper, however, I have not had the time to post them yet. I'm visiting from Deck The Halls Sunday! Take care!Hugz,Kim

Oooh,this is FabUlous, girlfriend! Thank you so much for sharing; I LOVE it! I'm sorry I didn't get back to you on your last note; been totally jammed lately but that's a good thing. Hope you have a wonderful holiday!

oh I am certainly goin gto make these they are beautiful and you are a great teacher. I sort of made 4 ornaments like your giant letter ones, except I just used smaller letters I made on the computer. One for hubby and I and then one each for our grown grand children. I am so proud of them not exactly like them but an inspiration and your home is just to die for thanks for posting that also. Merry Christmas

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